EASTERN ASSOCIATIONS. 
141 
the country, and periodically devastated by deluges of 
molten stone and boiling mud, or overwhelmed with 
whirlwinds of intermingled snow and cinders,—an un¬ 
finished corner of the universe, where the elements of 
chaos are still allowed to rage with unbridled fury. 
Our last stage from Thingvalla back to Reykjavik 
was got over very quickly, and seemed an infinitely 
shorter distance than when we first performed it. We 
met a number of farmers returning to their homes from 
a kind of fair that is annually held in the little metro¬ 
polis; and as I watched the long caravan-like line of 
pack-horses and horsemen, wearily plodding over the 
stony waste in single file, I found it less difficult to 
believe that these remote islanders should be descended 
from Oriental forefathers. In fact, one is constantly 
reminded of the East in Iceland. From the earliest ages 
the Icelanders have been a people dwelling in tents. In 
the time of the ancient Parliament, the legislators, during 
the entire session, lay encamped in moveable booths 
around the place of meeting. Their domestic polity is 
naturally patriarchal, and the flight of their ancestors 
from Norway was a protest against the antagonistic 
principle of feudalism. No Arab could be prouder of 
